JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Netanyahu: Israel boosting security for Jewish holidays-After five attacks in three days, PM vows troops ‘will be ready to defend our people during this sensitive period’-By AFP and Times of Israel staff September 18, 2016, 7:45 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel was boosting security ahead of the upcoming Jewish High Holidays, after a surge in violence in the past few days.Netanyahu’s comments came after what Israeli authorities said was the fifth attack on security forces or civilians since Friday following a three-week lull.The violence over the past few days came as Palestinians wrapped up the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting Sunday that the army and police “are boosting their forces” ahead of the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur in October.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting today to assess the security situation ahead of the Tishrei holidays.— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 18, 2016-“The security forces are on heightened alert and I will meet with them today in order to ensure that we will be ready to defend our people during this sensitive period,” he said.Earlier Sunday, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli officer in a West Bank settlement before being shot by forces at the scene, the army said. It said a “terrorist carried out a stabbing attack in Efrat and wounded an officer.”Both were evacuated to the Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem, which said the soldier was in moderate condition after he was stabbed in the armpit. The attacker was also in moderate condition after suffering a gunshot to his head during the attack.Efrat is a short distance from the flashpoint city of Hebron in the West Bank, where a Palestinian stabbed a soldier on Saturday before being shot dead, Israeli authorities say.On Friday, two Palestinians rammed a car into a bus stop used by Israelis near the adjacent Kiryat Arba settlement, causing injuries before troops killed one of the assailants, Israeli authorities said.The same day, a Jordanian tried to stab a police officer in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem before being shot dead, according to Israeli authorities.Jordan called the shooting a “barbaric act” and alleged that the man killed was part of a group of tourists.The Israeli army announced on Saturday it was deploying an additional battalion to reinforce the Hebron area following the uptick in violence around the city.Palestinian terrorism and violence since last October has killed 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Eritrean and a Sudanese; 227 Palestinians and a Jordanian were also killed during that time. Israeli forces say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were killed during protests and clashes or in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
Israel shoots down Palestinian drone off the Gaza coast-Army says UAV launched by Hamas terror group, was under surveillance ‘from the moment it took off’-By Judah Ari Gross September 20, 2016, 2:16 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel Air Force fighter jets shot down a drone off the Gaza Strip coast that had been launched reportedly by the Hamas terrorist group on Tuesday, the army said.In a statement, the military said the drone had been “under IAF surveillance from the moment it took off from the Gaza Strip.”Details regarding the size and design of the drone were not released by the military.The drone was only in the air for “a few minutes,” before it was shot down. At no point did it enter Israeli territory, a military official told The Times of Israel, on condition of anonymity.Hamas did not immediately confirm that they had launched the unmanned aerial vehicle, however, the terror group has said in the past that it possesses the capabilities.“Hamas has been developing its drone capabilities especially in the last two years,” IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said.“Today’s event proves once more that Hamas continues to invest in tools of terror and not the needs of the people of Gaza,” he said.The destroyed drone crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. It was not immediately clear if the Israel Navy would attempt to locate the fragments of the aircraft. When asked, an army spokesperson said they were “not aware” of such action.Unmanned aerial vehicles have infrequently been launched from the Gaza Strip, with the last similar incident occurring over a year ago, in June 2015. A handful were also launched during the 2014 Gaza war.Though Israeli jets were also scrambled in the June incident, no shots were fired as the drone crashed by itself close to the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip.The Defense Ministry has prevented a number of attempts to smuggle small, commercial drones into the Gaza Strip.In May, a shipment of packages sent through the Israeli postal service was intercepted en route to the Gaza Strip, containing disassembled drones, rifle scopes, radio receivers, cellphone signal boosters and video transmitters, a statement from the Defense Ministry said.In February, the ministry’s Border Crossing Authority foiled an attempt to smuggle several drones, of different sizes and types, into the coastal enclave.The drones, all of which were equipped with quality cameras, were apparently set to be used for spying on Israeli targets, the Defense Ministry said.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report
Netanyahu says he’ll urge ‘uniform’ global fight against terror at UN-PM heads to New York, will meet with Obama on Wednesday and ‘thank him for the great and important security assistance’-By Raphael Ahren September 20, 2016, 4:08 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
NEW YORK — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will urge world leaders to create “a uniform standard in the war on terrorism,” he said Tuesday before boarding his plane to New York, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly later this week.Netanyahu also said he will thank US President Barack Obama for a 10-year, $38-billion US military aid deal, signed last week, when the two leaders meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly on Wednesday.“We are in the midst of a very important diplomatic week for the State of Israel. I am leaving now for the United States,” Netanyahu told reporters at Ben Gurion Airport. “There I will first meet with President Obama and I will thank him for the great and important security assistance to the State of Israel over the coming decade.”During his five-day stay in the city, Netanyahu will also meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, World Economic Forum chief Klaus Schwab and a group of African heads of state. He will also address the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank that is giving him an award, and visit an exhibit of drawings by an Israeli soldier whose body is currently held by Hamas, along with the remains of another soldier.Before taking off for the UN headquarters, Netanyahu said he intends to urge world powers to unite in the campaign against terror.“I expect from the international community a uniform standard in the war on terrorism,” he said. “Today the entire international community says that there is a need to wage a determined and uncompromising fight against terrorism. And indeed, they must also support the determined and uncompromising fight against terrorism, and this moral clarity is necessary to both fight against — and defeat — terrorism.”The prime minister added that he will “present Israel’s case, Israel’s truth, Israel’s justice and also Israel’s heroism — the heroism of our soldiers, our police officers and our citizens, who are waging an uncompromising struggle against brutal terrorism,” during his address to world leaders.Netanyahu’s scheduled meeting with Obama comes a week after the two countries inked a new military package that will grant Israel $3.8 billion annually — up from the $3 billion pledged under the previous 10-year Memorandum of Understanding — starting in 2018 through 2028.Critics of the deal have said that Israel could have obtained even more if it were not for Netanyahu’s testy relationship with Obama. Netanyahu has rejected the suggestions that there was more on offer.The prime minister said earlier this week that the “saddest thing” in his eyes was that the deal’s critics were “showing ingratitude… to our greatest and best friend, the United States.”During his powwow with the president – which will amount to their 17th meeting in their current positions and is widely expected to be their last before a new president is inaugurated in late January – Netanyahu also “intends to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the Middle East as well as the way to advance peace and security,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.In a statement Sunday, the White House indicated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would play a central role in the conversation. “The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss the need for genuine advancement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the face of deeply troubling trends on the ground,” White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said.On Thursday morning, Netanyahu will address the General Assembly, just moments after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas take the podium.Abbas, who arrived in New York on Sunday and met with Kerry on Monday, was joined by PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General Saeb Erekat. The Palestinian leader is expected to conduct meetings with the presidents of Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, Cyprus and the prime minister of Belgium.In New York, Netanyahu is also scheduled to meet with up to 10 African presidents and foreign ministers, who will join him at a “special event” highlighting Israeli technology being used throughout the African continent. Furthermore, the prime minister will address a think tank and conduct “a series of meetings with heads of states from across the globe,” his office said, without providing further details.In addition, Netanyahu will visit a special exhibition featuring the drawings of Israel Defense Forces Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who was killed in Gaza on August 1, 2014. The exhibit, entitled “The Final Peace,” is currently on display at UN headquarters. “Hadar was killed and kidnapped by despicable terrorists during a UN sponsored ceasefire,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said last week at the exhibit’s opening, which was attended by Hadar’s parents and twin brother Tzur.Netanyahu’s delegation includes Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) and Deputy Minister for Diplomacy Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the US. As opposed to initial reports, Netanyahu’s media adviser Ran Baratz did not join the prime minister’s delegation.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Pope Francis denounces religious extremism at interfaith event-sept 20,16
The Pope's comments have come as fighting resumes in Syria. Pope Francis is meeting religious leaders in Assisi - the birthplace of his papal namesake, Saint Francis.Pope Francis held peace talks with religious leaders and victims of war in the Italian town of Assisi on Tuesday, broaching issues such as religious extremism and escalating violence around the world."There is no God of war," the Argentine said, denouncing extremist factions waging war in the name of God. "As we pray today, it would be good if we all felt shame, shame that humans, our brothers and sisters, are capable of doing this."The 79-year-old Pope's comments come as fighting resumed in Syria after the ceasefire agreement, brokered by the United States and Russia, collapsed.Before flying to Assisi, the Pope reminded the developed world that the string of deadly jihadist attacks it has endured did not compare to the devastation in other parts of the world."We are frightened… by some terrorist acts" but "this is nothing compared to what is happening in those countries, in those lands where day and night bombs fall," he said at a morning mass in the Vatican.Pope Francis arrived in the medieval Italian hillside town on Tuesday for the annual World Day of Prayer event. There, he held talks with a number of faith leaders from across different religions, as well as 12 refugees who have fled conflicts in Nigeria, Eritrea, Mali and Syria.All representatives also gathered to pray for peace and remember victims of war.Faith leaders in attending the event include Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I. There were also a number of Muslim, Jewish and Hindu representatives, as well as the Supreme head of the Tendai Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism.Overall, around 500 representatives from different religions have been taken part in a series of roundtable discussions with lay people since Sunday. Topics have reportedly ranged from religious violence to the migration crisis and climate change.The Pope also ate with Syrian refugees Mohanad and Nour Zanbou and their daughter. The family fled Syria at the end of 2014 after enduring more than "three years of war terror."A religious tradition-World Prayer Day was established by Pope John Paul II and is held annually in the central Italian town.This is the Pope Francis' second visit to Assisi in as many months. His papal namesake, Saint Francis, was born and found God in the town. Saint Francis renounced his wealth for a life of poverty and to preach tolerance, peace and gentleness.The Pope, whose birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, adopted the papal name Francis to honor the Christian friar and emulate the saint's devotion to peace and forgiveness.Since beginning his papacy in 2013, Francis has decried war and conflicts. These conflicts are, in essence, a "Third World War in segments," he said.dm/jil (AFP, AP)
There is ‘no God of war,’ pope tells faith leaders, war victims-World Day of Prayer for Peace unites 500 religious representatives in talks and prayers to combat religious violence and persecution-By Catherine MARCIANO September 20, 2016, 3:34 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
ASSISI, Italy (AFP) — Pope Francis denounced those who wage war in the name of God Tuesday, as he met faith leaders and victims of war to discuss growing religious fanaticism and escalating violence around the world.“The world is at war, the world is suffering,” the Argentine said ahead of the meeting, which came as fighting resumed in Syria and the US investigated an attack possibly linked to the Islamic State group.“There is no God of war,” he said, calling on “all men and women of good will, of any religion, to pray for peace.”The annual World Day of Prayer event, established by John Paul II 30 years ago and held in the medieval town in central Italy, aims to combat the persecution of peoples for their faiths and extremism dressed up as religion.The pope was quick to remind the West that while it had suffered a string of deadly jihadist attacks, there were parts of the world where cities were being flattened by fighting, prisoners were tortured and families were starved to death.“We are frightened… by some terrorist acts” but “this is nothing compared to what is happening in those countries, in those lands where day and night bombs fall,” he said at a morning mass at the Vatican.“As we pray today, it would be good if we all felt shame, shame that humans, our brothers and sisters, are capable of doing this.”The 79-year old pope arrived by helicopter in Assisi and was set to lunch with ten war victims before sitting down for talks with faith leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I.The Vatican said he would also meet one-on-one with unnamed Muslim and Jewish representatives, as well as Koei Morikawa, the Supreme Head of the Tendai Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism.Syrian Mohanad Zanboua, who was to eat with Francis along with his wife Nour and their daughter Maria, said they had fled the country at the end of 2014 “after three years of war and terror.”At 4 p.m., the leaders were due to retire to pray, in their own fashion and in separate locations, before meeting again for a joint ceremony where messages of peace will be read out by each leader and one of the war victims.Some 500 representatives from different religious traditions have been taking part with lay people in a series of round tables in the town since Sunday, on topics from religious violence to climate change and the migration crisis.It is the pope’s second visit in as many months to the picturesque hillside town, where his name-sake Saint Francis of Assisi was born and found God, renouncing his wealth for a life of poverty and becoming an emissary of peace.The head of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, who took the papal name Francis in homage to the famous Christian friar and his devotion to peace and forgiveness, has insisted violence committed in the name of religion has nothing to do with God.During a trip to Poland in August he said “the world is at war,” but driven by greed for “interests, money, resources, not religion.“All religions want peace, it’s the others who want war,” he said, warning against equating Islam with terrorism, insisting there were fundamentalist Catholics too.
Abbas blames Palestinian attacks on despair, but Hamas credits ‘resistance’-Amid renewed wave of stabbings and car-rammings, PA president says ‘martyrs and youths’ behind assaults ‘have lost hope’-By Dov Lieber September 18, 2016, 5:53 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that a lack of hope was behind a wave of stabbing attacks against Israelis, a claim that was swiftly contradicted by an official in the Hamas terror group, who attributed the attacks to Palestinians being “a people of resistance.”Speaking to a group of Palestinian students and graduates on Venezuela’s Margarita Island, where he was attending a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, Abbas said Sunday that every day there are “martyrs and youth” picking up knives to attack “on their own accord,” the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.“Don’t trust those who say there are efforts to push them or incite them. Rather, they have lost hope,” said Abbas.But Hamas spokesperson Usamah Hamdan took to Twitter to express his disagreement with Abbas, directing his criticism directly at the PA leader.“To Mahmoud Abbas: Our young people carry knives of their own accord because they belong to a people of resistance, which is not vanquished by the assault of the occupier or security coordination with it,” Hamdan wrote. “It’s not because of despair.”The statement by Abbas and counter-claim by Hamas comes amid a fresh spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.Since Friday, six attacks have taken place — four stabbings, a car ramming and a rock throwing — catching many Israelis by surprise, as the violence that marked 2015 and early 2016 appeared to have waned in recent months, and raising fears that regular attacks could return.Addressing the Palestinian students in Venezuela, Abbas reportedly called for “popular and peaceful resistance.”“Our hands are outstretched in peace, but peace won’t come without a state with East Jerusalem as its capital and without [insisting on] the right of return,” the president added, referring to the Palestinian demand for some 5 million refugees to settle in what is today Israel proper.Abbas has long called for “peaceful” resistance, and openly denounced violent attacks on Israelis. But the PA leader, along with many senior officials in his government, has been accused by Jerusalem of inciting violence.
Khamenei: Iran must stand strong against US in region’s conflicts-Tehran’s ‘supreme leader’ rejects cooperation with Washington as Revolutionary Guards chief vows to root out US influence-By AFP and Times of Israel staff September 19, 2016, 12:47 am
Iran’s supreme leader and the commander of its Revolutionary Guards pledged Sunday not to work with the US in resolving regional conflicts.In an address Sunday to commanders of the elite Republican Guards force, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Islamic Republic must stand strong against Washington.“The Americans insist we negotiate with them on regional issues, especially on Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen,” Khamenei said in the speech, which was published on his official website.“What is their main goal for requesting these talks? They have no aim but to prevent the presence in the region of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the main factor in America’s failures,” said Khamenei.Major generals Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Revolutionary Guards chief, and Qassem Suleimani, head of its foreign operations wing, the Quds Force, were among hundreds of commanders who attended the speech.“Rest assured that the root of the evil tree which wants US policies to penetrate the country will be cut and the Islamic Revolution will go through the third stage of its development through the supports and guidelines of the Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Armed Forces (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei),” said Jafari, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.Khamenei, whose country has not had diplomatic relations with Washington since 1980, stressed that military power and intimidation were the most effective means to keep foreign threats at bay.“In past years, some officials have said the removal of military threat and war were due to certain measures, but it’s not true,” he said.“The sole factor of removing military threats has been and will remain military and defense power and the creation of fear in the enemy.”
Now the knives are out-After four days of attacks, violence finally has papers’ attention, and while some credit blood-won experience for the wave’s relative lack of success, others wonder if bombast can fight terror too-By Joshua Davidovich September 20, 2016, 4:12 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Five days ago, a wave of stabbing and other attacks that had seemed to wane suddenly reared its head again. On Sunday, as readers of this column will recall, papers reacted to the uptick with little more than a ho-hum, the spate of attacks playing second fiddle to other stories. Despite the wave persisting, Monday’s papers were even less interested in the spurt of knifings.Come Tuesday, though, a day after two police were attacked in Jerusalem, one of them seriously hurt, and suddenly the torrent is at the top of every paper’s agenda. Go figure.It could be the fact that Tuesday’s stabbing was the first attack in which a victim was put in life-threatening condition, it could be the papers depressingly admitting that the so-called terror is not going way, or it could be just that there isn’t any more important news.Whatever the reason, while all three papers are on the same page regarding the fact that the rising violence is top news, their coverage diverges based on their own particular bents.Thus Yedioth Ahronoth’s populistic hyperbolic headline “Terror around the clock,” which is really much more scaremongery than necessary; Israel Hayom backing The Man with the headline “Cops on the front line;” and Haaretz focusing just as much on the attacks as the backlash they sparked in East Jerusalem, with the city shutting down a bunch of Arab stores in East Jerusalem in a seemingly punitive move.“[Jerusalem] Mayor [Nir Barkat] is again making use of the carrot and the stick, as if East Jerusalem residents are children who need to be taught and not grown adults living in their view – and in the view of every government or international body aside from Israel – under occupation. Today, in the hours after the attack, you could identify an increase in collective punishment,” Haaretz’s Nir Hasson writes in a column that bears a depressingly stark resemblance to one he penned two years ago.“It’s impossible to discount the possibility that the steps Barkat is so proud of have brought about a decrease in small-time violence in some neighborhoods in the eastern half of the city. But that’s doesn’t make them legal or ethical.”A more immediate way to decrease violence, or increase it depending on who you ask, is to shoot the guy who is stabbing you, as one policeman did Monday, earning the moniker in Yedioth of “a double hero.”“I was caught off guard,” the border policeman is quoted telling the tabloid from his hospital bed, where the paper notes he is constantly surrounded by relatives, fellow cops, soldiers and others. “We didn’t see him and didn’t hear him. Suddenly, I felt a stab in my neck. I fell, got up and immediately saw him attack the female cop and stab her and I did what needed to be done.”As for that poor policewoman, a mother of two, the paper notes that she is in very serious but stable condition.Crowning the cops “the human wall of Jerusalem,” Israel Hayom columnist Haim Shine thanks them and blames the uptick on violence on those “lying” politicians and columnists who claim that only a return to the 1967 lines will stop the terror attacks.“Arab-Palestinian terror on Israeli soil will never stop,” he writes. “It has its ups and downs. For 120 years already the Zionist vision and its implementers have been battling decisively against evil terrorists. Whoever thinks they can remove the Jews from their homeland via terror doesn’t understand a thing at all about the significant history of the Jewish people’s rise in their land after 2,000 years of worldwide Diaspora.”The paper also reports that the cop that shot the terrorist has been to this rodeo before, having been stabbed while guarding a police station in 2005. Taking that rodeo to a macro-level Haaretz analyst Amos Harel notes that this new wave of attacks has seen relatively little success thanks to the fact that Israeli forces and policymakers seem to know what they are doing, with last year’s terror spurt on their resumes.“The army is responding faster than it did last year; it has already begun bolstering its forces in the West Bank, and police are expected to follow suit in Jerusalem,” he writes.“Individual soldiers and policemen are also responding more effectively and ending the attacks rapidly, thanks to improved training by both the army and police following last year’s attacks. And Israeli civilians are better protected, thanks to the installation of cameras almost everywhere and of concrete barriers at West Bank hitchhiking posts. All this won’t stop the wave of lone-wolf terror attacks, but it should reduce Israeli casualties.”But who needs experience when you have big talk. Papers’ coverage of the arrest of a suspect in a series of bombs in New York and New Jersey includes columnists seeing good news for Donald Trump, for better or worse. In Trump-backing Israel Hayom, Boaz Bismuth uses the capture of Ahmed Khan Rahami to stump for his favorite golden-haired mogul and his anti-immigrant stance.“This is exactly what Trump is talking about – about the danger that among migrants from Muslim countries are terrorists, and on the fact that America is not winning against terror. So what should an American think? On one hand, the media tells him that Trump is loudmouthed and says things that are very wrong, definitely not politically correct, and on the other hand, these events prove that maybe sometimes he is right,” he writes. “There’s no doubt that the fact that Obama continues, even after eight years and hundreds of attacks around the globe, to refuse to say the words “Islamic terror” plays into the hands of Trump, who suddenly is giving examples of places, like Israel, where profiling works and reduces damages.”On the flip-side of that is Yedioth’s Orly Azulay, who notes with abject horror how Rahami’s reign of attempted terror will give Trump an edge, predicting that in the next 50 days he’ll “dance on blood” until he becomes a winner.“If Ahmed Khan Rahami didn’t exist, Donald Trump would have had to invent him. The youth of Afghan descent has strengthened the campaign of fear Trump has run since the beginning. Fear of foreigners, of Muslims, or immigrants,” she writes. “Hillary Clinton has much more experience than Trump fighting terror and managing policies, but he has the right vocabulary for a jittery public. Only he can say: We’ll fight them, we’ll exterminate them, we’ll deport them, we’ll take their visas. Never mind that behind the words he has no plan or smidgen of an idea how to actually do that.”
Trump win could lead Obama to back 2-state move at UN, ex-diplomat predicts-Outgoing president would want to create standards his successor cannot undo, Dennis Ross says at Palo Alto confab on future of Zionism sponsored by The Times of Israel-By Raphael Ahren September 19, 2016, 11:24 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
PALO ALTO, California — A looming Donald Trump presidency would make it more likely for lame-duck US President Barack Obama to support a United Nations Security Council resolution laying down the basic parameters for the creation of Palestinian state, a former top US official said Sunday.“I suspect that if Trump wins, the president would be more inclined to go for a Security Council resolution to try to do something that binds, creates standards for the future that the next president couldn’t undo,” Dennis Ross said at a conference on the future of Zionism and the US-Israel relationship. “If Clinton wins, I suspect he [Obama] would be more sensitive to her concerns as to whether this helps or hurt her.”Ross, who worked on Israeli-Palestinian issues for decades, including a two-year stint as special assistant to Obama and a year as special adviser to Hillary Clinton, said that the current president “would like to do something, leave some kind of legacy.”Ross was speaking at a panel organized by the second annual Zionism 3.0 Conference, sponsored by The Times of Israel, at Palo Alto’s Oshman Family Jewish Community Center. The panel was moderated by this reporter.Jerusalem has for decades relied on a tacit US policy of shielding Israel from resolutions at the UN Security Council, which are often described as one-sided. While Obama’s possible move would not reverse that stance, it would mark a significant departure, Ross noted. What Obama decides to do, though, he said, will likely be heavily influenced by the outcome of the presidential race.Once the dust has settled following elections on November 8, Obama may use the opportunity as a lame duck to deliver a speech laying out parameters for a peace arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians, or even suggest a Security Council resolution defining those parameters, either to be proposed by the US or another country, Ross speculated.The president’s speech, were he to make one, would very likely be balanced, Ross added, by equally addressing Palestinian concerns — borders and Jerusalem — and Israeli demands regarding security and the question of Palestinian refugees.But any Security Council resolution introduced by another country would very likely emphasize the Palestinian demands over Israeli concerns, he said.“Then the question becomes: if someone else introduces this as a resolution and it waters down the essence of what the president has offered, which would have been balanced between the two, does the US then veto it? That is going to be heavily influenced by the outcome of the election,” Ross said.“I’m guessing he would be much more inclined to try to be proactive in terms of presenting something that could create standards for the future that the next president couldn’t undo,” he continued.On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.In a statement Sunday, the White House indicated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would play a central role in the conversation.“The meeting also will be an opportunity to discuss the need for genuine advancement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the face of deeply troubling trends on the ground,” said White House spokesperson Josh Earnest.Netanyahu’s office, confirming the meeting, did not mention the conflict, but said the PM would thank Obama for a recent $38-billion 10-year defense aid package and would also discuss strategic ties.Despite working for both Bill and Hillary Clinton during his decades as a diplomat dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ross was hesitant to say explicitly which presidential candidate would be better for Israel.“The way you want to judge both candidates is not necessarily based on what they say about Israel, but you want to judge them [based on] what’s their view of the world,” he said. “Are they approaching the Middle East in a way that ensures there won’t be vacuums? If you’re Israel what you want is an America that has a strong position in the Middle East because that makes you stronger.”Israel and the Arab world do not want the US to withdraw from the region and leave power vacuums, Ross explained.“If I were to look at the two candidates I’d ask: who is more likely to stay engaged in the region, understanding the dynamics of that region? Who is going to have a relationship with allies that can be dependable, and who’s not?”-‘Criticism of Israel is not a substitute for a healthy relationship’-Other sessions at the day-long conference centered on the nature of ties between American Jews and the Jewish state, particularly the place of criticism of Israel within that bond.Yehuda Kurtzer, the president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, noted that the relationship between the two communities had become strained.“Two generations ago, the State of Israel was probably the strongest organizing force for the American Jewish community,” he said. “Today, there is no stronger disorganizing force in Jewish life, no single greater source of tension in the American Jewish communal politics than the State of Israel.”In his presentation, Kurtzer also argued against the often-used metaphor of Israeli and American Jews as part of a “family.” A secular Jew from California usually feels closer to his neighbor than to an ultra-Orthodox man in Bnei Brak with whom he has fundamental disagreements, even if he really wants to believe that the Bnei Brak man is family, he opined. “I am not sure that the metaphor of the Jewish people as a family has ever been true,” he went on.Rather, Kurtzer suggested referring to Israeli Jews and American Jews as “mutual descendants of a shared ancestor.”His father, Dan Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Israel, argued that while security and economic issues affecting Israelis are clearly the sole responsibility of the government in Jerusalem, issues relating to the state’s Jewish identity are more complicated.“Some in Israel have sought to determine unilaterally, as a matter of Israeli policies issues that affect Judaism and things Jewish outside of Israel, such as basic identity questions of who is a Jew, questions of personal status, marriage divorce, conversions,” he stated.“American Jews have said almost uniformly that these are not issues that cannot remain simply within the purview of the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel. For sure the Chief Rabbinate has something to say, as do other streams within Israel. But equally, we have something to say, whether we are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, unaffiliated, whatever our inclinations are. Questions regarding Jewish life have to be shared responsibilities.”Arguing that criticism and arguments shouldn’t be swept under the rug, Andy David, Jerusalem’s consul general to the Pacific Northwest, said Israel could still be a uniting factor for Jews on both sides of the ocean.“No matter your color, your affiliation, your sexual orientation or the length of your beard… Israel, we can agree, is a place that can unite us. Sometimes, when you think about how you practice your Judaism, there are different sides of that equation that can hardly agree on anything,” he claimed. “But we can agree that we care for Israel. So Israel is not a force that splits us… that Israel can be the force that unites us.”Writer Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem-based Shalom Hartman Institute, also said that American Jews have the right — and even the obligation — to criticize Israeli government policies, yet added a caveat:“Criticism is not a substitute for a healthy relationship,” he said, arguing that in certain circles he sees that bashing Israel — for some American Jews — has become the only way of relating to the state.“What I need from American Jewish critics is a sense of understanding the agonizing complexities of Israel’s dilemmas, not to trivialize our dilemmas,” added Klein Halevi.
In first, Corbyn says Israel ‘has right to exist’ under ‘1948 agreement’-At Jewish community hustings, UK Labour leader tries to moderate perceived anti-Israel stance, but shrugs off questions on rising anti-Semitism in the party-By Raoul Wootliff September 19, 2016, 3:59 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Challenging accusations of a weak response to growing anti-Semitism within his ranks, spurred in part by what many perceive as his own anti-Israel sentiments, embattled UK Labour leader Jerermy Corbyn faced members of London’s Jewish community on Sunday in the last debate of a closely fought internal election for the leadership of the party.In his first such comments, Corbyn said that he supports Israel’s right to exist, based on Israel’s “original border,” a reference that presumably meant without Israeli control over the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Gaza.“Yes,” he said in response to an audience question, “Israel has the right to exist. I support the right of the State of Israel to exist, under the agreement of the original borders of 1948.”In the past, Corbyn has responded to inquiries as to whether he thinks the State of Israel has the right to exist by saying that he and his party back a two-state solution.It was not entirely clear which “agreement of the original borders of 1948” Corbyn was referring to in his remarks Sunday. The UN partition plan of 1947 recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine into two states, Arab and Jewish, but the borders in the plan were very different from those that Israel controlled by the time war ended in March 1949. Israel accepted the Partition Plan while the Arab states votes against the proposal.It is more likely that Corbyn was referring to what are commonly known as the “pre-1967 borders,” which is the ceasefire line from March 1949. Unlike the UN plan, the ceasefire line set in place two years later, and now accepted by much of the world as Israel’s international border, places parts of Jerusalem and more of the southern Negev and northern Galilee within Israel.Standing opposite challenger Owen Smith at the JW3 Jewish community center in North West London, Corbyn faced a prickly crowd keen to hear — and at times shout over — his responses to claims that as party leader he has embraced an ideological bent towards radical left-wing politics that demonize Israel and encourage anti-Semitism. The debate — organized by the Jewish Labour Movement, Labour Friends of Israel and JW3, along with The Times of Israel’s local partner, the UK-based Jewish News — came at the end of what some have described as one of the most bitter leadership races in living memory.Corbyn, a 67-year-old socialist known for his anti-war, anti-austerity campaigning and opposition to the party’s former centrist leader Tony Blair, won a crushing leadership victory exactly 12 months ago. But while his left-wing policies are popular with many grassroots supporters, they do not impress most of the party’s more moderate lawmakers, who say such views cannot win general elections. Corbyn’s position as Labour leader appears solid thanks to the backing of powerful trade unions and his vociferous grassroots supporters, with a recent YouGov poll predicting he will smash Smith with 62 percent of the vote to Smith’s 38.Many Jewish voters, however, view him with skepticism due to his past comments on Israel and associations with vehemently anti-Israel figures. The Labour leader has come under fire for referring to Iranian-backed Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends,” which Corbyn dismissed as a diplomatic term intended to engage with the groups. During a speech in 2009, as patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Corbyn invited members of the two terror groups to speak at the British Parliament.Asked by a Jewish News reporter at the Wednesday debate what he most admired about Israel and its achievements, Corbyn expressed rare praise, saying, “I admire the verve and spirit of the towns and cities in Israel. I admire the separation of legal and political powers in the system of democratic government that’s there.”But those comments were not enough to prevent a barrage of questions from the crowd over claims of anti-Semitism in the party and Corbyn’s poor handling of a series of recent crises.An internal inquiry in June found Labour was not overrun by anti-Semitism but reported an “occasionally toxic atmosphere.” But in remarks made during an event marking the release of the report, Corbyn seemed to draw a comparison between Israel and the Islamic State terror group, saying that, “our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or the Netanyahu government than our Muslim friends are for those various self-styled Islamic states or organizations.”The report was commissioned after a controversy exploded when Labour MP Naz Shah was suspended by the party pending an investigation into allegations that she shared anti-Semitic posts on social media before being elected. A number of other low level party officials were also suspended for similar posts and statements.Defending Shah in a series of interviews, Labour party veteran Ken Livingstone said that criticism of Israel’s policies was being confused with anti-Semitism, and claimed that Zionism was initially supported by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.“When Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews,” he said. Livingstone has since repeatedly stood by the assertion that Hitler supported Zionism for a time.Drawing applause, Corbyn and Smith both said on Sunday that they would support a rule change to be voted on at the party conference next week specifically naming anti-Semitism as a disciplinary offence and making it punishable on the same level as expressing support for another party.But Corbyn’s nonchalant responses to past incidents were not appreciated by some in the crowd. Audience members could be heard shouting “shame” when, asked if Livingstone should be permanently expelled from the party, Corbyn responded hastily: “He was suspended, he is under investigation, due process will follow. I have nothing to do with it.”Similarly, Corbyn was heckled when he defended a political ally’s objection to Israeli vegetables in a local supermarket by brushing off the incident as “relating to settlement goods.”Smith pounced on Corbyn as “mealy-mouthed and weak” in his response to the anti-Semitic incidents.Not all opposed the Labour leader at the event. Corbyn was welcomed by some in the audience who raucously applauded his statements.“I want there to be a place in the party for everyone, whether they be supporters of Israel, critics of Israel or friendly supporters of Israel who also criticize it,” Corbyn appealed to the audience. “I want everyone to feel absolutely safe within the party.”Voting for the Labour leadership ends on Wednesday this week and the result will be announced at the party’s annual conference on September 24.AFP contributed to this report.
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Netanyahu: Israel boosting security for Jewish holidays-After five attacks in three days, PM vows troops ‘will be ready to defend our people during this sensitive period’-By AFP and Times of Israel staff September 18, 2016, 7:45 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel was boosting security ahead of the upcoming Jewish High Holidays, after a surge in violence in the past few days.Netanyahu’s comments came after what Israeli authorities said was the fifth attack on security forces or civilians since Friday following a three-week lull.The violence over the past few days came as Palestinians wrapped up the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting Sunday that the army and police “are boosting their forces” ahead of the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur in October.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting today to assess the security situation ahead of the Tishrei holidays.— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 18, 2016-“The security forces are on heightened alert and I will meet with them today in order to ensure that we will be ready to defend our people during this sensitive period,” he said.Earlier Sunday, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli officer in a West Bank settlement before being shot by forces at the scene, the army said. It said a “terrorist carried out a stabbing attack in Efrat and wounded an officer.”Both were evacuated to the Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem, which said the soldier was in moderate condition after he was stabbed in the armpit. The attacker was also in moderate condition after suffering a gunshot to his head during the attack.Efrat is a short distance from the flashpoint city of Hebron in the West Bank, where a Palestinian stabbed a soldier on Saturday before being shot dead, Israeli authorities say.On Friday, two Palestinians rammed a car into a bus stop used by Israelis near the adjacent Kiryat Arba settlement, causing injuries before troops killed one of the assailants, Israeli authorities said.The same day, a Jordanian tried to stab a police officer in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem before being shot dead, according to Israeli authorities.Jordan called the shooting a “barbaric act” and alleged that the man killed was part of a group of tourists.The Israeli army announced on Saturday it was deploying an additional battalion to reinforce the Hebron area following the uptick in violence around the city.Palestinian terrorism and violence since last October has killed 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Eritrean and a Sudanese; 227 Palestinians and a Jordanian were also killed during that time. Israeli forces say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were killed during protests and clashes or in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
Israel shoots down Palestinian drone off the Gaza coast-Army says UAV launched by Hamas terror group, was under surveillance ‘from the moment it took off’-By Judah Ari Gross September 20, 2016, 2:16 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel Air Force fighter jets shot down a drone off the Gaza Strip coast that had been launched reportedly by the Hamas terrorist group on Tuesday, the army said.In a statement, the military said the drone had been “under IAF surveillance from the moment it took off from the Gaza Strip.”Details regarding the size and design of the drone were not released by the military.The drone was only in the air for “a few minutes,” before it was shot down. At no point did it enter Israeli territory, a military official told The Times of Israel, on condition of anonymity.Hamas did not immediately confirm that they had launched the unmanned aerial vehicle, however, the terror group has said in the past that it possesses the capabilities.“Hamas has been developing its drone capabilities especially in the last two years,” IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said.“Today’s event proves once more that Hamas continues to invest in tools of terror and not the needs of the people of Gaza,” he said.The destroyed drone crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. It was not immediately clear if the Israel Navy would attempt to locate the fragments of the aircraft. When asked, an army spokesperson said they were “not aware” of such action.Unmanned aerial vehicles have infrequently been launched from the Gaza Strip, with the last similar incident occurring over a year ago, in June 2015. A handful were also launched during the 2014 Gaza war.Though Israeli jets were also scrambled in the June incident, no shots were fired as the drone crashed by itself close to the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip.The Defense Ministry has prevented a number of attempts to smuggle small, commercial drones into the Gaza Strip.In May, a shipment of packages sent through the Israeli postal service was intercepted en route to the Gaza Strip, containing disassembled drones, rifle scopes, radio receivers, cellphone signal boosters and video transmitters, a statement from the Defense Ministry said.In February, the ministry’s Border Crossing Authority foiled an attempt to smuggle several drones, of different sizes and types, into the coastal enclave.The drones, all of which were equipped with quality cameras, were apparently set to be used for spying on Israeli targets, the Defense Ministry said.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report
Netanyahu says he’ll urge ‘uniform’ global fight against terror at UN-PM heads to New York, will meet with Obama on Wednesday and ‘thank him for the great and important security assistance’-By Raphael Ahren September 20, 2016, 4:08 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
NEW YORK — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will urge world leaders to create “a uniform standard in the war on terrorism,” he said Tuesday before boarding his plane to New York, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly later this week.Netanyahu also said he will thank US President Barack Obama for a 10-year, $38-billion US military aid deal, signed last week, when the two leaders meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly on Wednesday.“We are in the midst of a very important diplomatic week for the State of Israel. I am leaving now for the United States,” Netanyahu told reporters at Ben Gurion Airport. “There I will first meet with President Obama and I will thank him for the great and important security assistance to the State of Israel over the coming decade.”During his five-day stay in the city, Netanyahu will also meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, World Economic Forum chief Klaus Schwab and a group of African heads of state. He will also address the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank that is giving him an award, and visit an exhibit of drawings by an Israeli soldier whose body is currently held by Hamas, along with the remains of another soldier.Before taking off for the UN headquarters, Netanyahu said he intends to urge world powers to unite in the campaign against terror.“I expect from the international community a uniform standard in the war on terrorism,” he said. “Today the entire international community says that there is a need to wage a determined and uncompromising fight against terrorism. And indeed, they must also support the determined and uncompromising fight against terrorism, and this moral clarity is necessary to both fight against — and defeat — terrorism.”The prime minister added that he will “present Israel’s case, Israel’s truth, Israel’s justice and also Israel’s heroism — the heroism of our soldiers, our police officers and our citizens, who are waging an uncompromising struggle against brutal terrorism,” during his address to world leaders.Netanyahu’s scheduled meeting with Obama comes a week after the two countries inked a new military package that will grant Israel $3.8 billion annually — up from the $3 billion pledged under the previous 10-year Memorandum of Understanding — starting in 2018 through 2028.Critics of the deal have said that Israel could have obtained even more if it were not for Netanyahu’s testy relationship with Obama. Netanyahu has rejected the suggestions that there was more on offer.The prime minister said earlier this week that the “saddest thing” in his eyes was that the deal’s critics were “showing ingratitude… to our greatest and best friend, the United States.”During his powwow with the president – which will amount to their 17th meeting in their current positions and is widely expected to be their last before a new president is inaugurated in late January – Netanyahu also “intends to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the Middle East as well as the way to advance peace and security,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.In a statement Sunday, the White House indicated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would play a central role in the conversation. “The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss the need for genuine advancement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the face of deeply troubling trends on the ground,” White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said.On Thursday morning, Netanyahu will address the General Assembly, just moments after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas take the podium.Abbas, who arrived in New York on Sunday and met with Kerry on Monday, was joined by PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General Saeb Erekat. The Palestinian leader is expected to conduct meetings with the presidents of Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, Cyprus and the prime minister of Belgium.In New York, Netanyahu is also scheduled to meet with up to 10 African presidents and foreign ministers, who will join him at a “special event” highlighting Israeli technology being used throughout the African continent. Furthermore, the prime minister will address a think tank and conduct “a series of meetings with heads of states from across the globe,” his office said, without providing further details.In addition, Netanyahu will visit a special exhibition featuring the drawings of Israel Defense Forces Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who was killed in Gaza on August 1, 2014. The exhibit, entitled “The Final Peace,” is currently on display at UN headquarters. “Hadar was killed and kidnapped by despicable terrorists during a UN sponsored ceasefire,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said last week at the exhibit’s opening, which was attended by Hadar’s parents and twin brother Tzur.Netanyahu’s delegation includes Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) and Deputy Minister for Diplomacy Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the US. As opposed to initial reports, Netanyahu’s media adviser Ran Baratz did not join the prime minister’s delegation.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Pope Francis denounces religious extremism at interfaith event-sept 20,16
The Pope's comments have come as fighting resumes in Syria. Pope Francis is meeting religious leaders in Assisi - the birthplace of his papal namesake, Saint Francis.Pope Francis held peace talks with religious leaders and victims of war in the Italian town of Assisi on Tuesday, broaching issues such as religious extremism and escalating violence around the world."There is no God of war," the Argentine said, denouncing extremist factions waging war in the name of God. "As we pray today, it would be good if we all felt shame, shame that humans, our brothers and sisters, are capable of doing this."The 79-year-old Pope's comments come as fighting resumed in Syria after the ceasefire agreement, brokered by the United States and Russia, collapsed.Before flying to Assisi, the Pope reminded the developed world that the string of deadly jihadist attacks it has endured did not compare to the devastation in other parts of the world."We are frightened… by some terrorist acts" but "this is nothing compared to what is happening in those countries, in those lands where day and night bombs fall," he said at a morning mass in the Vatican.Pope Francis arrived in the medieval Italian hillside town on Tuesday for the annual World Day of Prayer event. There, he held talks with a number of faith leaders from across different religions, as well as 12 refugees who have fled conflicts in Nigeria, Eritrea, Mali and Syria.All representatives also gathered to pray for peace and remember victims of war.Faith leaders in attending the event include Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I. There were also a number of Muslim, Jewish and Hindu representatives, as well as the Supreme head of the Tendai Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism.Overall, around 500 representatives from different religions have been taken part in a series of roundtable discussions with lay people since Sunday. Topics have reportedly ranged from religious violence to the migration crisis and climate change.The Pope also ate with Syrian refugees Mohanad and Nour Zanbou and their daughter. The family fled Syria at the end of 2014 after enduring more than "three years of war terror."A religious tradition-World Prayer Day was established by Pope John Paul II and is held annually in the central Italian town.This is the Pope Francis' second visit to Assisi in as many months. His papal namesake, Saint Francis, was born and found God in the town. Saint Francis renounced his wealth for a life of poverty and to preach tolerance, peace and gentleness.The Pope, whose birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, adopted the papal name Francis to honor the Christian friar and emulate the saint's devotion to peace and forgiveness.Since beginning his papacy in 2013, Francis has decried war and conflicts. These conflicts are, in essence, a "Third World War in segments," he said.dm/jil (AFP, AP)
There is ‘no God of war,’ pope tells faith leaders, war victims-World Day of Prayer for Peace unites 500 religious representatives in talks and prayers to combat religious violence and persecution-By Catherine MARCIANO September 20, 2016, 3:34 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
ASSISI, Italy (AFP) — Pope Francis denounced those who wage war in the name of God Tuesday, as he met faith leaders and victims of war to discuss growing religious fanaticism and escalating violence around the world.“The world is at war, the world is suffering,” the Argentine said ahead of the meeting, which came as fighting resumed in Syria and the US investigated an attack possibly linked to the Islamic State group.“There is no God of war,” he said, calling on “all men and women of good will, of any religion, to pray for peace.”The annual World Day of Prayer event, established by John Paul II 30 years ago and held in the medieval town in central Italy, aims to combat the persecution of peoples for their faiths and extremism dressed up as religion.The pope was quick to remind the West that while it had suffered a string of deadly jihadist attacks, there were parts of the world where cities were being flattened by fighting, prisoners were tortured and families were starved to death.“We are frightened… by some terrorist acts” but “this is nothing compared to what is happening in those countries, in those lands where day and night bombs fall,” he said at a morning mass at the Vatican.“As we pray today, it would be good if we all felt shame, shame that humans, our brothers and sisters, are capable of doing this.”The 79-year old pope arrived by helicopter in Assisi and was set to lunch with ten war victims before sitting down for talks with faith leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I.The Vatican said he would also meet one-on-one with unnamed Muslim and Jewish representatives, as well as Koei Morikawa, the Supreme Head of the Tendai Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism.Syrian Mohanad Zanboua, who was to eat with Francis along with his wife Nour and their daughter Maria, said they had fled the country at the end of 2014 “after three years of war and terror.”At 4 p.m., the leaders were due to retire to pray, in their own fashion and in separate locations, before meeting again for a joint ceremony where messages of peace will be read out by each leader and one of the war victims.Some 500 representatives from different religious traditions have been taking part with lay people in a series of round tables in the town since Sunday, on topics from religious violence to climate change and the migration crisis.It is the pope’s second visit in as many months to the picturesque hillside town, where his name-sake Saint Francis of Assisi was born and found God, renouncing his wealth for a life of poverty and becoming an emissary of peace.The head of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, who took the papal name Francis in homage to the famous Christian friar and his devotion to peace and forgiveness, has insisted violence committed in the name of religion has nothing to do with God.During a trip to Poland in August he said “the world is at war,” but driven by greed for “interests, money, resources, not religion.“All religions want peace, it’s the others who want war,” he said, warning against equating Islam with terrorism, insisting there were fundamentalist Catholics too.
Abbas blames Palestinian attacks on despair, but Hamas credits ‘resistance’-Amid renewed wave of stabbings and car-rammings, PA president says ‘martyrs and youths’ behind assaults ‘have lost hope’-By Dov Lieber September 18, 2016, 5:53 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that a lack of hope was behind a wave of stabbing attacks against Israelis, a claim that was swiftly contradicted by an official in the Hamas terror group, who attributed the attacks to Palestinians being “a people of resistance.”Speaking to a group of Palestinian students and graduates on Venezuela’s Margarita Island, where he was attending a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, Abbas said Sunday that every day there are “martyrs and youth” picking up knives to attack “on their own accord,” the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.“Don’t trust those who say there are efforts to push them or incite them. Rather, they have lost hope,” said Abbas.But Hamas spokesperson Usamah Hamdan took to Twitter to express his disagreement with Abbas, directing his criticism directly at the PA leader.“To Mahmoud Abbas: Our young people carry knives of their own accord because they belong to a people of resistance, which is not vanquished by the assault of the occupier or security coordination with it,” Hamdan wrote. “It’s not because of despair.”The statement by Abbas and counter-claim by Hamas comes amid a fresh spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.Since Friday, six attacks have taken place — four stabbings, a car ramming and a rock throwing — catching many Israelis by surprise, as the violence that marked 2015 and early 2016 appeared to have waned in recent months, and raising fears that regular attacks could return.Addressing the Palestinian students in Venezuela, Abbas reportedly called for “popular and peaceful resistance.”“Our hands are outstretched in peace, but peace won’t come without a state with East Jerusalem as its capital and without [insisting on] the right of return,” the president added, referring to the Palestinian demand for some 5 million refugees to settle in what is today Israel proper.Abbas has long called for “peaceful” resistance, and openly denounced violent attacks on Israelis. But the PA leader, along with many senior officials in his government, has been accused by Jerusalem of inciting violence.
Khamenei: Iran must stand strong against US in region’s conflicts-Tehran’s ‘supreme leader’ rejects cooperation with Washington as Revolutionary Guards chief vows to root out US influence-By AFP and Times of Israel staff September 19, 2016, 12:47 am
Iran’s supreme leader and the commander of its Revolutionary Guards pledged Sunday not to work with the US in resolving regional conflicts.In an address Sunday to commanders of the elite Republican Guards force, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Islamic Republic must stand strong against Washington.“The Americans insist we negotiate with them on regional issues, especially on Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen,” Khamenei said in the speech, which was published on his official website.“What is their main goal for requesting these talks? They have no aim but to prevent the presence in the region of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the main factor in America’s failures,” said Khamenei.Major generals Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Revolutionary Guards chief, and Qassem Suleimani, head of its foreign operations wing, the Quds Force, were among hundreds of commanders who attended the speech.“Rest assured that the root of the evil tree which wants US policies to penetrate the country will be cut and the Islamic Revolution will go through the third stage of its development through the supports and guidelines of the Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Armed Forces (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei),” said Jafari, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.Khamenei, whose country has not had diplomatic relations with Washington since 1980, stressed that military power and intimidation were the most effective means to keep foreign threats at bay.“In past years, some officials have said the removal of military threat and war were due to certain measures, but it’s not true,” he said.“The sole factor of removing military threats has been and will remain military and defense power and the creation of fear in the enemy.”
Now the knives are out-After four days of attacks, violence finally has papers’ attention, and while some credit blood-won experience for the wave’s relative lack of success, others wonder if bombast can fight terror too-By Joshua Davidovich September 20, 2016, 4:12 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Five days ago, a wave of stabbing and other attacks that had seemed to wane suddenly reared its head again. On Sunday, as readers of this column will recall, papers reacted to the uptick with little more than a ho-hum, the spate of attacks playing second fiddle to other stories. Despite the wave persisting, Monday’s papers were even less interested in the spurt of knifings.Come Tuesday, though, a day after two police were attacked in Jerusalem, one of them seriously hurt, and suddenly the torrent is at the top of every paper’s agenda. Go figure.It could be the fact that Tuesday’s stabbing was the first attack in which a victim was put in life-threatening condition, it could be the papers depressingly admitting that the so-called terror is not going way, or it could be just that there isn’t any more important news.Whatever the reason, while all three papers are on the same page regarding the fact that the rising violence is top news, their coverage diverges based on their own particular bents.Thus Yedioth Ahronoth’s populistic hyperbolic headline “Terror around the clock,” which is really much more scaremongery than necessary; Israel Hayom backing The Man with the headline “Cops on the front line;” and Haaretz focusing just as much on the attacks as the backlash they sparked in East Jerusalem, with the city shutting down a bunch of Arab stores in East Jerusalem in a seemingly punitive move.“[Jerusalem] Mayor [Nir Barkat] is again making use of the carrot and the stick, as if East Jerusalem residents are children who need to be taught and not grown adults living in their view – and in the view of every government or international body aside from Israel – under occupation. Today, in the hours after the attack, you could identify an increase in collective punishment,” Haaretz’s Nir Hasson writes in a column that bears a depressingly stark resemblance to one he penned two years ago.“It’s impossible to discount the possibility that the steps Barkat is so proud of have brought about a decrease in small-time violence in some neighborhoods in the eastern half of the city. But that’s doesn’t make them legal or ethical.”A more immediate way to decrease violence, or increase it depending on who you ask, is to shoot the guy who is stabbing you, as one policeman did Monday, earning the moniker in Yedioth of “a double hero.”“I was caught off guard,” the border policeman is quoted telling the tabloid from his hospital bed, where the paper notes he is constantly surrounded by relatives, fellow cops, soldiers and others. “We didn’t see him and didn’t hear him. Suddenly, I felt a stab in my neck. I fell, got up and immediately saw him attack the female cop and stab her and I did what needed to be done.”As for that poor policewoman, a mother of two, the paper notes that she is in very serious but stable condition.Crowning the cops “the human wall of Jerusalem,” Israel Hayom columnist Haim Shine thanks them and blames the uptick on violence on those “lying” politicians and columnists who claim that only a return to the 1967 lines will stop the terror attacks.“Arab-Palestinian terror on Israeli soil will never stop,” he writes. “It has its ups and downs. For 120 years already the Zionist vision and its implementers have been battling decisively against evil terrorists. Whoever thinks they can remove the Jews from their homeland via terror doesn’t understand a thing at all about the significant history of the Jewish people’s rise in their land after 2,000 years of worldwide Diaspora.”The paper also reports that the cop that shot the terrorist has been to this rodeo before, having been stabbed while guarding a police station in 2005. Taking that rodeo to a macro-level Haaretz analyst Amos Harel notes that this new wave of attacks has seen relatively little success thanks to the fact that Israeli forces and policymakers seem to know what they are doing, with last year’s terror spurt on their resumes.“The army is responding faster than it did last year; it has already begun bolstering its forces in the West Bank, and police are expected to follow suit in Jerusalem,” he writes.“Individual soldiers and policemen are also responding more effectively and ending the attacks rapidly, thanks to improved training by both the army and police following last year’s attacks. And Israeli civilians are better protected, thanks to the installation of cameras almost everywhere and of concrete barriers at West Bank hitchhiking posts. All this won’t stop the wave of lone-wolf terror attacks, but it should reduce Israeli casualties.”But who needs experience when you have big talk. Papers’ coverage of the arrest of a suspect in a series of bombs in New York and New Jersey includes columnists seeing good news for Donald Trump, for better or worse. In Trump-backing Israel Hayom, Boaz Bismuth uses the capture of Ahmed Khan Rahami to stump for his favorite golden-haired mogul and his anti-immigrant stance.“This is exactly what Trump is talking about – about the danger that among migrants from Muslim countries are terrorists, and on the fact that America is not winning against terror. So what should an American think? On one hand, the media tells him that Trump is loudmouthed and says things that are very wrong, definitely not politically correct, and on the other hand, these events prove that maybe sometimes he is right,” he writes. “There’s no doubt that the fact that Obama continues, even after eight years and hundreds of attacks around the globe, to refuse to say the words “Islamic terror” plays into the hands of Trump, who suddenly is giving examples of places, like Israel, where profiling works and reduces damages.”On the flip-side of that is Yedioth’s Orly Azulay, who notes with abject horror how Rahami’s reign of attempted terror will give Trump an edge, predicting that in the next 50 days he’ll “dance on blood” until he becomes a winner.“If Ahmed Khan Rahami didn’t exist, Donald Trump would have had to invent him. The youth of Afghan descent has strengthened the campaign of fear Trump has run since the beginning. Fear of foreigners, of Muslims, or immigrants,” she writes. “Hillary Clinton has much more experience than Trump fighting terror and managing policies, but he has the right vocabulary for a jittery public. Only he can say: We’ll fight them, we’ll exterminate them, we’ll deport them, we’ll take their visas. Never mind that behind the words he has no plan or smidgen of an idea how to actually do that.”
Trump win could lead Obama to back 2-state move at UN, ex-diplomat predicts-Outgoing president would want to create standards his successor cannot undo, Dennis Ross says at Palo Alto confab on future of Zionism sponsored by The Times of Israel-By Raphael Ahren September 19, 2016, 11:24 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
PALO ALTO, California — A looming Donald Trump presidency would make it more likely for lame-duck US President Barack Obama to support a United Nations Security Council resolution laying down the basic parameters for the creation of Palestinian state, a former top US official said Sunday.“I suspect that if Trump wins, the president would be more inclined to go for a Security Council resolution to try to do something that binds, creates standards for the future that the next president couldn’t undo,” Dennis Ross said at a conference on the future of Zionism and the US-Israel relationship. “If Clinton wins, I suspect he [Obama] would be more sensitive to her concerns as to whether this helps or hurt her.”Ross, who worked on Israeli-Palestinian issues for decades, including a two-year stint as special assistant to Obama and a year as special adviser to Hillary Clinton, said that the current president “would like to do something, leave some kind of legacy.”Ross was speaking at a panel organized by the second annual Zionism 3.0 Conference, sponsored by The Times of Israel, at Palo Alto’s Oshman Family Jewish Community Center. The panel was moderated by this reporter.Jerusalem has for decades relied on a tacit US policy of shielding Israel from resolutions at the UN Security Council, which are often described as one-sided. While Obama’s possible move would not reverse that stance, it would mark a significant departure, Ross noted. What Obama decides to do, though, he said, will likely be heavily influenced by the outcome of the presidential race.Once the dust has settled following elections on November 8, Obama may use the opportunity as a lame duck to deliver a speech laying out parameters for a peace arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians, or even suggest a Security Council resolution defining those parameters, either to be proposed by the US or another country, Ross speculated.The president’s speech, were he to make one, would very likely be balanced, Ross added, by equally addressing Palestinian concerns — borders and Jerusalem — and Israeli demands regarding security and the question of Palestinian refugees.But any Security Council resolution introduced by another country would very likely emphasize the Palestinian demands over Israeli concerns, he said.“Then the question becomes: if someone else introduces this as a resolution and it waters down the essence of what the president has offered, which would have been balanced between the two, does the US then veto it? That is going to be heavily influenced by the outcome of the election,” Ross said.“I’m guessing he would be much more inclined to try to be proactive in terms of presenting something that could create standards for the future that the next president couldn’t undo,” he continued.On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.In a statement Sunday, the White House indicated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would play a central role in the conversation.“The meeting also will be an opportunity to discuss the need for genuine advancement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the face of deeply troubling trends on the ground,” said White House spokesperson Josh Earnest.Netanyahu’s office, confirming the meeting, did not mention the conflict, but said the PM would thank Obama for a recent $38-billion 10-year defense aid package and would also discuss strategic ties.Despite working for both Bill and Hillary Clinton during his decades as a diplomat dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ross was hesitant to say explicitly which presidential candidate would be better for Israel.“The way you want to judge both candidates is not necessarily based on what they say about Israel, but you want to judge them [based on] what’s their view of the world,” he said. “Are they approaching the Middle East in a way that ensures there won’t be vacuums? If you’re Israel what you want is an America that has a strong position in the Middle East because that makes you stronger.”Israel and the Arab world do not want the US to withdraw from the region and leave power vacuums, Ross explained.“If I were to look at the two candidates I’d ask: who is more likely to stay engaged in the region, understanding the dynamics of that region? Who is going to have a relationship with allies that can be dependable, and who’s not?”-‘Criticism of Israel is not a substitute for a healthy relationship’-Other sessions at the day-long conference centered on the nature of ties between American Jews and the Jewish state, particularly the place of criticism of Israel within that bond.Yehuda Kurtzer, the president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, noted that the relationship between the two communities had become strained.“Two generations ago, the State of Israel was probably the strongest organizing force for the American Jewish community,” he said. “Today, there is no stronger disorganizing force in Jewish life, no single greater source of tension in the American Jewish communal politics than the State of Israel.”In his presentation, Kurtzer also argued against the often-used metaphor of Israeli and American Jews as part of a “family.” A secular Jew from California usually feels closer to his neighbor than to an ultra-Orthodox man in Bnei Brak with whom he has fundamental disagreements, even if he really wants to believe that the Bnei Brak man is family, he opined. “I am not sure that the metaphor of the Jewish people as a family has ever been true,” he went on.Rather, Kurtzer suggested referring to Israeli Jews and American Jews as “mutual descendants of a shared ancestor.”His father, Dan Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Israel, argued that while security and economic issues affecting Israelis are clearly the sole responsibility of the government in Jerusalem, issues relating to the state’s Jewish identity are more complicated.“Some in Israel have sought to determine unilaterally, as a matter of Israeli policies issues that affect Judaism and things Jewish outside of Israel, such as basic identity questions of who is a Jew, questions of personal status, marriage divorce, conversions,” he stated.“American Jews have said almost uniformly that these are not issues that cannot remain simply within the purview of the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel. For sure the Chief Rabbinate has something to say, as do other streams within Israel. But equally, we have something to say, whether we are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, unaffiliated, whatever our inclinations are. Questions regarding Jewish life have to be shared responsibilities.”Arguing that criticism and arguments shouldn’t be swept under the rug, Andy David, Jerusalem’s consul general to the Pacific Northwest, said Israel could still be a uniting factor for Jews on both sides of the ocean.“No matter your color, your affiliation, your sexual orientation or the length of your beard… Israel, we can agree, is a place that can unite us. Sometimes, when you think about how you practice your Judaism, there are different sides of that equation that can hardly agree on anything,” he claimed. “But we can agree that we care for Israel. So Israel is not a force that splits us… that Israel can be the force that unites us.”Writer Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem-based Shalom Hartman Institute, also said that American Jews have the right — and even the obligation — to criticize Israeli government policies, yet added a caveat:“Criticism is not a substitute for a healthy relationship,” he said, arguing that in certain circles he sees that bashing Israel — for some American Jews — has become the only way of relating to the state.“What I need from American Jewish critics is a sense of understanding the agonizing complexities of Israel’s dilemmas, not to trivialize our dilemmas,” added Klein Halevi.
In first, Corbyn says Israel ‘has right to exist’ under ‘1948 agreement’-At Jewish community hustings, UK Labour leader tries to moderate perceived anti-Israel stance, but shrugs off questions on rising anti-Semitism in the party-By Raoul Wootliff September 19, 2016, 3:59 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Challenging accusations of a weak response to growing anti-Semitism within his ranks, spurred in part by what many perceive as his own anti-Israel sentiments, embattled UK Labour leader Jerermy Corbyn faced members of London’s Jewish community on Sunday in the last debate of a closely fought internal election for the leadership of the party.In his first such comments, Corbyn said that he supports Israel’s right to exist, based on Israel’s “original border,” a reference that presumably meant without Israeli control over the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Gaza.“Yes,” he said in response to an audience question, “Israel has the right to exist. I support the right of the State of Israel to exist, under the agreement of the original borders of 1948.”In the past, Corbyn has responded to inquiries as to whether he thinks the State of Israel has the right to exist by saying that he and his party back a two-state solution.It was not entirely clear which “agreement of the original borders of 1948” Corbyn was referring to in his remarks Sunday. The UN partition plan of 1947 recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine into two states, Arab and Jewish, but the borders in the plan were very different from those that Israel controlled by the time war ended in March 1949. Israel accepted the Partition Plan while the Arab states votes against the proposal.It is more likely that Corbyn was referring to what are commonly known as the “pre-1967 borders,” which is the ceasefire line from March 1949. Unlike the UN plan, the ceasefire line set in place two years later, and now accepted by much of the world as Israel’s international border, places parts of Jerusalem and more of the southern Negev and northern Galilee within Israel.Standing opposite challenger Owen Smith at the JW3 Jewish community center in North West London, Corbyn faced a prickly crowd keen to hear — and at times shout over — his responses to claims that as party leader he has embraced an ideological bent towards radical left-wing politics that demonize Israel and encourage anti-Semitism. The debate — organized by the Jewish Labour Movement, Labour Friends of Israel and JW3, along with The Times of Israel’s local partner, the UK-based Jewish News — came at the end of what some have described as one of the most bitter leadership races in living memory.Corbyn, a 67-year-old socialist known for his anti-war, anti-austerity campaigning and opposition to the party’s former centrist leader Tony Blair, won a crushing leadership victory exactly 12 months ago. But while his left-wing policies are popular with many grassroots supporters, they do not impress most of the party’s more moderate lawmakers, who say such views cannot win general elections. Corbyn’s position as Labour leader appears solid thanks to the backing of powerful trade unions and his vociferous grassroots supporters, with a recent YouGov poll predicting he will smash Smith with 62 percent of the vote to Smith’s 38.Many Jewish voters, however, view him with skepticism due to his past comments on Israel and associations with vehemently anti-Israel figures. The Labour leader has come under fire for referring to Iranian-backed Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends,” which Corbyn dismissed as a diplomatic term intended to engage with the groups. During a speech in 2009, as patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Corbyn invited members of the two terror groups to speak at the British Parliament.Asked by a Jewish News reporter at the Wednesday debate what he most admired about Israel and its achievements, Corbyn expressed rare praise, saying, “I admire the verve and spirit of the towns and cities in Israel. I admire the separation of legal and political powers in the system of democratic government that’s there.”But those comments were not enough to prevent a barrage of questions from the crowd over claims of anti-Semitism in the party and Corbyn’s poor handling of a series of recent crises.An internal inquiry in June found Labour was not overrun by anti-Semitism but reported an “occasionally toxic atmosphere.” But in remarks made during an event marking the release of the report, Corbyn seemed to draw a comparison between Israel and the Islamic State terror group, saying that, “our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or the Netanyahu government than our Muslim friends are for those various self-styled Islamic states or organizations.”The report was commissioned after a controversy exploded when Labour MP Naz Shah was suspended by the party pending an investigation into allegations that she shared anti-Semitic posts on social media before being elected. A number of other low level party officials were also suspended for similar posts and statements.Defending Shah in a series of interviews, Labour party veteran Ken Livingstone said that criticism of Israel’s policies was being confused with anti-Semitism, and claimed that Zionism was initially supported by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.“When Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews,” he said. Livingstone has since repeatedly stood by the assertion that Hitler supported Zionism for a time.Drawing applause, Corbyn and Smith both said on Sunday that they would support a rule change to be voted on at the party conference next week specifically naming anti-Semitism as a disciplinary offence and making it punishable on the same level as expressing support for another party.But Corbyn’s nonchalant responses to past incidents were not appreciated by some in the crowd. Audience members could be heard shouting “shame” when, asked if Livingstone should be permanently expelled from the party, Corbyn responded hastily: “He was suspended, he is under investigation, due process will follow. I have nothing to do with it.”Similarly, Corbyn was heckled when he defended a political ally’s objection to Israeli vegetables in a local supermarket by brushing off the incident as “relating to settlement goods.”Smith pounced on Corbyn as “mealy-mouthed and weak” in his response to the anti-Semitic incidents.Not all opposed the Labour leader at the event. Corbyn was welcomed by some in the audience who raucously applauded his statements.“I want there to be a place in the party for everyone, whether they be supporters of Israel, critics of Israel or friendly supporters of Israel who also criticize it,” Corbyn appealed to the audience. “I want everyone to feel absolutely safe within the party.”Voting for the Labour leadership ends on Wednesday this week and the result will be announced at the party’s annual conference on September 24.AFP contributed to this report.
